There was a real prospect of war, only avoided by an impressive piece of personal diplomacy in which Lorenzo effectively made himself a hostage of King Ferrante of Naples, persuaded the king into an alliance and, eventually, in March , returned to Florence and to power.
The legacy that is most familiar today is one of patronage. It was at the villa in Careggi where he died on 8 April , regretting that his library was still not finished. He might have been satisfied to know that it survives, more than years on. He died two years before the outbreak of war and the exile of the Medici.
These men had made their money from trade and industry but were not titled lords. In the modern world, the Medici became a model for philanthropy — even if that meant overlooking some of the more dubious means by which they had acquired their wealth and their power.
Catherine Fletcher is a historian of Renaissance and early modern Europe. You can also listen to her discuss the Medici in more detail in this episode of the HistoryExtra podcast. Sign in. Back to Main menu Virtual events Masterclasses. Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother were no less proficient in horsemanship and all athletic exercises than in the Humanities, and there is no doubt that the amusements in which they delighted, and which they promoted, greatly enhanced their popularity.
The famous tournaments which took place in , and about which so much has been written, bear witness to this. The prize awarded to Lorenzo de' Medici was a silver helmet with a figure of Mars as the crest. The Giostra di Lorenzo was celebrated in a poem by Luca Pulci; and that of Giuliano in a far better, but unfinished, poem by Poliziano, which, however, is addressed to Lorenzo. In the following year, another pageant took place on the occasion of the marriage of Lorenzo de' Medici with Clarice Orsini.
A few months later his father died. The event really made little difference in Lorenzo's position, for he had been at the head of affairs for some time. On the second day after Piero's death, the citizens presented a petition asking the two sons to assume the position occupied by their father and grandfather, and Lorenzo de' Medici accepted the offer. Henceforth, though nominally bankers, the brothers were virtually princes, and rulers of Florence. This he did, ruling as his father and grandfather had done, from behind the scenes and without holding any public office.
Lorenzo enhanced the prestige and stability of his house when he came to an agreement with Pope Sixtus IV in by which the Medici would continue to handle the papal finances. And in he won the hearts of all Florentines by saving the city from an imminent famine. When the bad harvest of that year threatened the population with disaster, it was Lorenzo who imported large amounts of grain. Although it was a maxim of Medici policy to retain close ties with the Holy See, relations between Lorenzo and Pope Sixtus were not always cordial.
The Pontiff was very displeased when Lorenzo's diplomacy achieved an alliance between Florence, Venice, and Milan, for such a combination was more than a match for the armies of the Church. Sixtus felt thwarted in his ambitions to expand the papal territory and uneasy about the safety of what the Church already held.
His hostility grew when he learned that Lorenzo was trying to buy the town of Imola, which was strategically important. Consequently the Pope agreed to a plot designed to rid Florence of both Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano. The chief conspirators were the Pazzi family, a rival banking house and bitter enemies of the Medici.
The plan was to assassinate the two brothers at a moment when their guard would be down, during the celebration of Mass on Easter Sunday, April 26, Giuliano was slain, but Lorenzo escaped with wounds. The people of Florence rallied to the Medici standard and visited a terrible retribution on the hapless conspirators, most of whom did not survive the day.
Among those killed was Francesco Salviato, Archbishop of Pisa. The Pope, enraged, excommunicated Lorenzo and placed an interdict on the city. Lorenzo, knowing that the safety of his city and his dynasty were at stake, undertook the most hazardous adventure of his colorful career.
He went by sea to Naples, virtually placing his life in the hands of the King. Ferrante was won over by Lorenzo's charm and his persuasive argument that it would not do for Italy to be divided or Florence destroyed. Lorenzo returned to Florence with the gift of peace and was received with great joy.
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